Thiruvananthapuram: Amid the Corona virus of 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, BBC sites in India (across all BBC online sites visited by the Indian audience) registered a record 52.5 million unique visitors in March 2021 alone. The figures released by Comscore revealed that BBC sites grew faster than domestic publishers in the news category across the financial year 2020-2021 in India. 

The year-on-year growth of BBC sites in 2020-21 over 2019-20 has been notably contributed to by the 35+ age group and female audiences in particular. Moreover, BBC sites continue to be the number one international news site in India. \

"This boost in audience numbers clearly indicates that people are increasingly being drawn towards news brands that are trusted and impartial by nature.  As always, we are committed to continue delivering high-quality and fact-based journalism that our users across the country know they can rely on," said BBC Global News, managing director, Rahul Sood. 

BBC News, head of Indian languages, "Our ambition is ensuring best journalism that goes further, serving all parts of the audience. Delivering on diversity with a range of stories that we cover is clearly bringing wider audiences to BBC sites."